CPI(M)’s return in West Bengal

Unless it is the city being painted blue, or tiffs between Trinamool and Congress, or infant deaths, Kolkata doesn’t always warrant national news coverage. However, two news items featured prominently in local media earlier this week. First, there was a CPM rally at the Brigade grounds on 19th, the first time such a rally has been held after 1977, with the CPM in opposition. What surprised everyone was size of the rally, despite much of it being of the rent-a-crowd variety.

While numbers are uncertain, around 1 million people assembled. There are 294 seats in West Bengal’s legislative assembly and in 2011 Trinamool won 184, with Congress chipping in with 42. CPM was reduced to 40 and Left Front to 62. That is history and though the sweep was expected, its scale was unanticipated. However, in a first-past-the-post system, seats are an imperfect indicator of support. Trinamool swept with a 48% vote share. But the Left still got a 42% vote share. This is by no means insignificant. The Left in West Bengal may have suffered a leadership and identity crisis and may have been licking its wounds. The rally has energized the Left. Referring to the rally, the CM has said CPI(M) should not exist. That’s a point of view that many might subscribe to. But that doesn’t mean this is a universally accepted view, certainly not in West Bengal.

At a broad-brush level of generalization, richer urban and educated sections moved their support to AITC, as did poorer rural Muslim voters. But poorer Hindu voters remained with the Left. Again in very broad terms, core issue was bad governance, supplanting of administrative machinery by party apparatus and consequent deterioration across a spectrum of socio-economic indicators. Sure, 35 years of bad governance cannot be rolled back overnight. Infrastructure (both physical and social) and investment climate improvements take time. However, signals are important and civil service reform isn’t that difficult.

There are morals from the Nitish Kumar parallel. There is plenty of money floating around in the system (PMGSY, SSA, MDMS, JNNURM), despite West Bengal’s finances being precarious. Signals on law and order improvements aren’t that difficult to deliver either. But better delivery of public goods and services requires the civil service, and not just higher rungs of all-India services. The second news item concerns a rape case in Kolkata’s Park Street. Though arrests have subsequently been made, the Chief Minister’s initial reaction was that the case had been fabricated to malign AITC.

Madan Mitra, the Transport and Sports Minister, made matters worse by suggesting the lady was using the rape allegation in an attempt to blackmail. He also insinuated she asked for it, by visiting a night club so late in the night. There have been reports that police officers who were instrumental in taking the case forward have been castigated by the CM.

West Bengal’s Cabinet has 34 Ministers. The CM has charge of Home Affairs, Health & Family Welfare, Land & Land Reforms, Agriculture, Information & Cultural Affairs, Hill Affairs, Minority Affairs & Madrassah Education, Personnel & Administrative Reform and Power. Other than Commerce & Industry, Finance, Education and Law, there isn’t a single major portfolio that isn’t with CM.

Whether Ministers in charge of these four portfolios have requisite independence is a separate point. I am reminded of K. Kamaraj. Among other things, he was CM of Tamil Nadu between 1954-63. Recall Kamaraj’s three Cabinets between 1954 and 1963. In all three, CM only retained minor portfolios. (He retained Home in the first Cabinet, but relinquished it subsequently.) Instead, Kamaraj depended on people like M. Bhaktavatsalam, C. Subramaniam and R. Venkataraman. That didn’t diminish his stature as CM, nor did it question his leadership.

Given AITC’s ideological inclinations, one would have expected Home, Health, Administrative Reforms and Power to be with independent Ministers. Those are important areas for improved governance. Not only has CM tied herself up in knots with public pronouncements on these (infant deaths, farmers’ suicides, police), there has been no sense of urgency on any of these. Apart from blaming the Left, it has been about symbols (painting the city blue, Rabindra Sangeet, renaming places and the State, birth anniversaries of men of letters, appointing a brand ambassador).

The AITC brand is increasingly leading to ennui. One can palpably see it among richer urban and educated segments, reflected for instance in media reportage. Poorer segments will take longer to move away. But the bureaucracy is disenchanted. People with the option want to move away from the State. Those without the option wish to move to unimportant positions, distanced from CM. This doesn’t augur well for the change (“paribartan”) that was supposed to come. The CPI(M) should not exist. But the CM is herself making it easier for the Left to return in 2016. Being in the opposition is one thing, being the government is another.

DISCLAIMER : Views expressed above are the author's own.

Comments on this post are closed now

Be the first one to review.

Author

Bibek Debroy is an economist, columnist and author. He has worked for the government, for an industry chamber and for academic (teaching and research) institutes. He is the author of several books, papers and popular articles. He is now a Professor at the Centre for Policy Research, Delhi

Bibek Debroy is an economist, columnist and author. He has worked for the government, for an industry chamber and for academic (teaching and research) insti. . .